Why is Life the Way it Is? with Nick Lane

The vital question: Earth teems with life but why is it the way it is, and how did it begin in the first place? Nick Lane unravels the tangled history of life.

Nick Lane is an evolutionary biochemist in the Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London. His work focuses on the origin of life, and the origin and evolution of eukaryotes. He is also author of prize-winning popular science books, including 'Life ascending'.

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[stephenarmiger]

A small thing, but delighted to see water being poured into glasses. In so many lectures, speakers are given water in plastic bottles. I have always loved glass. We take glass for granted.

[LEDewey_MD]

Dr. Nick Lane's book, "The Vital Question", blew me away. I am a physician, but I have followed closely for the past four decades (yes that dates me) the search for possible mechanisms as to how life first evolved on Earth. (In Dr. Lane's words: the shopping list for Life is rock, water, and CO2). I grew up in the era of the Viking Mars space missions, and have followed this topic as a hobby ever since. (I even took biochemistry as an "elective" in college, and have continued to study it ever since...) Dr. Nick Lane lays out in logical format HOW it could be done (creation of the first life on Earth), and HOW complex life (i.e., eukaryotes) may have evolved, and WHY advanced life is likely to be rare (at least much MORE rare than bacterial life) in the universe. He is an engaging, humorous, creative and passionate writer. (Dr. Lane's earlier book, "Oxygen - the Molecule that Made the World", is a wonderful adjunct, even though it was published in 2002, and is still relevant and accurate.)

[DocFrobnitz]

Excellent talk, great to have a speaker who just runs with their ideas, doesn't dumb things down or lower the conceptual bandwidth. A science lecture *should* leave you with a list of notes, things to look up, books to read.

[videospick]

Thank you for the post - I always love to hear Nick Lane. Of course reading his books are even more rewarding - Thank you all for making life meaningful.

[animumaurarium]

18:00 "Extraordinary professor" simply means that he wasn't given a full professorship, i.e. an "ordinary" professorship. The two types of professor are also called "extraordinarius" and "ordinarius".

[ThePoptartster]

Who wouldn't love a dynamic cytoskeleton? Totally worth the adenosine triphosphate. :P

[todds]

WOW! Just saw Eric Idle in the audience at 2:22/2:23 front row second from left ...I LOVE Nick's Book the Vital Question- amazing! and Eric Idle in audience- can't beat that! :)

[eddieking]

Highly recommend Dr Lane's book, Oxygen: The Molecule that Made the World.

[noahharrison]

5:24 is that a wild Brian Cox in the audience?

[mountainhobo]

17:50 "Extraordinary Professor of Anatomy" was actually a lower title than "Ordinary Professor of Anatomy". Germany was not the only country which used that hierarchy.

[citizenschallengeYT]

6:00 I got an entirely different take on that. Regarding germs having "done nothing" - to me those evolutionary trees and what Lane and others are teaching us about the full breath of life on Earth - is revealing to me that microorganisms have been evolving along side the rest of complex life, helping support the increasingly complexity, etc, doing their thing.  
Evolving in their own tiny world.
Does that make sense? Or?

[peterbarjona]

I love listening to these talks by these learned men that try so hard to get the answers for origin of life, they always end up with more questions than answers just like Darwin did, it's spectacular.

[Raydensheraj]

I study Astrophysics but try to find time concerning Abiogenesis and Evolution/Biology. I own Ruse & Travis Evolution: The first four billion years. I also owe a couple Books specifically on Astrobiology like Paul Davies "The Eerie Silence", David Grinspoon " Lonely Planets" and "First Contact" by Marc Kaufman and my favorite "Rare Earth" by Ward & Brownlee...of course I have Darwin's Origin of Species.
I purchased this week Nick Lanes " The Vital Question" and am in the process of reading it...
I'm asking individuals here watching the video - which other Books are "must reads" concerning Abiogenesis, Evolution, DNA/Genetics - basically Biology... And a brief explanation/review would also be great. Thanks fellow Science lovers (:

[unvergebeneid]

31:00 "It forces you to have sex." #RapedByEndosymbionts

[medaphysicsrepository]

Im sorry to say this, but I really didn't enjoy his book the vital question, I couldn't get past the first chapter, too much anthropic bias, subjective hypothetical scenarios, little/no sources cited on things or hell, he never even gives an observation to back up his claims, and his "argument" is based off of "well this happens, but sometimes it doesn't" then he goes on after stating a certain hypothesis as "wrong" (stating his opinion as fact) because "if life proceeded because of X, then Y would be the result" but NEVER gives a fucking example of why this is the case, its as if he doesn't know what r and k selection theory is, ... any biochemists or molecular biologist read the whole book ? Does it get better? Is there anything to gain from reading this?

[Crokto]

Oh man, I actually cracked up at "bog standard algae'. I think that means I'm gonna be a dad.

[patrickboudreau]

If the first unicellular organism had some 4000 genes, we definitly have not a clue how it all started. We know that if you put 4000 genes in competition with other 4000 genes, you end up with humans after a few bilion years.

[sadhanaidu]

If there is the possibility of accepting reality then People change and times have nothing to do with it. I am into my 7th decade and still pray to the sun despite my pronounced academic accreditation.

[lefrog]

Question:Is *the vital question – energy, evolution, and the origins of complex life* the same book as *Vital Question: Why is life the way it is* ??

[FreekHoekstra]

Why is more complex life more relevant to evolve towards then single cellular organisms. in the end what matters is survival and procreation, there is no basis to suggest more complex individuals have a bigger chance of surviving as a species.
in fact Bacteria and other smaller singular lifeforms are some of the ruggest, most robust and hardest to erradicate from our planet. so given Survival of the fittest, they do extrememly well, also who says multiple things have not developed in parralel, and successfull change instead of being transferred by lateral transfer, redevelopment over time.